Comprehensive race management for races that give back
About Central Kentucky Race Management
Central Kentucky Race Management was founded in 2017 by Jeff Proctor, initially called Central Kentucky Timing Services. The company has since expanded into race management and picked up two other co-partners, Damon Barnes and Greg Milby. With each founder fluent in different areas of race and event management, CKRM is able to offer a comprehensive approach to managing races. CKRM is unique in a sense that they only offer their services to races that are associated with a nonprofit. Since using the RunSignup platform, Central Kentucky Race Management has seen their everyday race management processes become much more efficient.
RunSignup as an All-In-One Platform
Simple, Effective Volunteer Management
“The volunteer platform on RunSignup is a valuable asset because it’s a full-time job managing volunteers without it.” Included with every RunSignup account, it allows volunteers to register to help out with your race just like a participant. Race directors can separate volunteer duties by tasks and times, as well as assign task managers for each group of volunteers. CKRM then uses RunSignup’s email platform to communicate important race details to volunteers.
CKRM manages their volunteers through RunSignup’s volunteer capabilities, making it simple for them to identify areas that need more help and focus their efforts towards these areas. They’ve also found the capability helpful when it comes to managing groups that volunteer, such as Boy Scouts. The volunteer platform makes it easy to keep these groups together and organized.
Packaging Races with Multi-Race Bundles
When Central Kentucky Race Management discovered multi-race bundles on RunSignup they immediately started to look for ways to bundle races. One way they found success was through bundling two races with a related cause. The Trooper Ponder 5k raises money in honor of an officer killed in the line of duty, while the Light the Night 5k has police cars along the race route lighting the path. When purchased as a bundle, runners receive a discounted registration. CKRM has seen a noticeable increase in registrations for both races since offering them as a bundle.
On the backend, race directors can determine the percentage discount, how many races are in a bundle, and how the money is split among the races. To see how you can bundle your races, go to Race Dashboard >> Multi-Race Registration >> Add Multi-Race Bundle.
Email Communication Directly on the RunSignup Platform
RunSignup builds an email communication platform capability within the platform to allow race directors to provide important race information and updates to their participants. The capability is free for RunSignup users and saves race directors the hassle of communicating through a different platform. Instead of importing lists of participants, the email capabilty utilizes information already stored on the RunSignup server.
This data also allows race directors to set automated emails to send specifc participants, such as event confirmation and price-increase reminders. For CKRM, this was once a manual process, but since learning about the feature at Summer Symposium, Co-Founder Damon Barnes plans to implement email automation. “I really like to simplify things and have one thing that does everything, and the fact that [RunSignup] can do that, to me, and satisfy every need that we’ve had is great.”
“My favorite RunSignup feature is the emails. Just being able to integrate that and not needing to go to another service.”
Damon Barnes – Central Kentucky Race Management
Bringing the Central Kentucky Race Management Domain to RunSignup
Strong branding is everything when it comes to marketing your race, and RunSignup’s flexible features let Central Kentucky Race Management maintain that brand for each race they manage. At CKRM, they are all about the race, so they spend a great deal of time maintaining the online presence of these races. Prior to starting with RunSignup, CKRM was making updates to their race’s websites almost every day. Much of this information was automatically updated on their partner account, so that’s when they decided to make a switch. “We decided to move that domain away from our provider and moved it over to RunSignup so now, anytime anyone goes to the website, they’re going directly to all the features we have within our partner account,” says Jeff Proctor.
The ability to bring a custom domain to your RunSignup website extends further than your partner account. Race directors can can bring their custom domain to an individual race as well. This makes it easier
for runners to easily find your race website right from their browser search bar. Central Kentucky Race Management uses this option for their Falls 100 race. The domain brings users right to its RunSignup registration page. To take race branding one step further, Central Kentucky Race Management plans to pair a custom cover page with their BYO Domains to utilize some of RunSignup’s newest features.
Organizing your Race with RaceCRM
Central Kentucky Race Management has found the RaceCRM to be extremely helpful when renewing past races. The feature allows them to pull a list of past participants and email them when registration opens for the renewed event.
They also use this feature to generate a list of survey respondents. An incentive CKRM uses when sending out surveys is registration reminders for completing the survey. The list of respondents is stored in the CRM. Central Kentucky Race Management has seen an 82% response rate because of this. To try out RaceCRM, go to Race Dashboard >> CRM >> Create List.
Key Takeaways
1. BYO Domains has helped Central Kentucky Race Management establish a strong brand for their races and kept all of their information in one place.
2. CKRM uses the volunteer management feature on RunSignup to save time when it comes to managing volunteers while making it easy for volunteers to get the info they need.
3. The RaceCRM has helped Central Kentucky Race Management establish several lists to communicate with the correct volunteers when needed.
To read other customer case studies, you can visit the RunSignup website, or check out our YouTube channel.